How to Document a Tenant Repair Request From First Message to Closed Job
A repair that is not documented did not happen — as far as a tribunal, an insurer or a future buyer is concerned. Here is the record a request should leave behind.
Repair obligations are the most litigated part of renting in almost every country, and the cases turn on timing: when was the landlord told, how quickly did they respond, was the fix adequate, was the tenant kept informed. All of that is answerable in seconds if the request was documented as it happened, and unanswerable if it lives in text messages on two phones.
The record a repair request should leave
- The report — when it was received, by what channel, in the tenant's words, with their photos. If it came by text or phone, log it immediately with the time; the log entry is the evidence.
- Your acknowledgement — sent the same day where possible, with an expected timescale. Dated.
- Triage — urgent (no heat, no water, security, safety) versus routine, and the target response for each written into your process so it is the same for every tenant.
- The contractor — who was instructed, when, and the quote if one was needed. Several quotes for a large job, with the one accepted marked.
- Access — the notice given to the tenant for the visit, and the agreed date.
- The visit and the work — date, outcome, the invoice, photos of the completed work.
- Confirmation — the tenant's acknowledgement that the issue is resolved, or their report that it is not, which reopens the loop.
One request, one record
The simplest way to get all seven is to make each request its own record beneath the tenancy: reported date, reported by, category, urgency, description, photos; contractor as a role; quotes and visits as dated tables; the invoice attached; a status that moves from Reported to Closed. The tenant's photos arrive through a file-request link so they land on the record rather than in a text thread; the contractor's quote is filed from email; the acknowledgement and completion notices are generated from the record and sent from it, so replies file themselves. We walk through this in maintenance requests done right.
The timing question, answered
"When did you first know?" — the reported date on the record, with the tenant's message attached. "What did you do?" — the timeline. "How long did it take?" — reported date to closed date, computed. "Did the tenant agree it was fixed?" — their confirmation, dated. These are the four questions a tribunal asks, and a well-kept record answers them without anyone's memory being involved.
The pattern over time
Across a building, the closed requests are data: which unit reports most, which contractor is slowest, what the annual spend on plumbing was. Roll-ups on the building record surface this without a spreadsheet, and the owner's statement carries the maintenance spend with the invoices behind it — see building a dashboard you will actually look at.
What to avoid
Repairs discussed only by phone. Contractors instructed by text with no written scope. Invoices paid and filed in accounting with no link to the job. Photos of completed work on the contractor's phone. Each of these is a gap that becomes a dispute later.
